Fan beam X- or .gamma.-ray 3-D tomography

In a method of examining at least a part of the interior of a body using penetrating radiation the steps of:

• transmitting a divergent beam of radiation from an external source of radiation through the body in a plurality of divergent paths to establish an initial set of divergent ray paths through a generally planar slice of the body;
• transmitting divergent radiation from said external source through said body in further sets of divergent paths disposed in said planar slice at different angles from each other and from said initial angle, the sets of divergent rays being such that every element of a two-dimensional matrix of elements of the body in said planar slice is intersected by a group of said rays, the group of rays being different for the different elements of the matrix;
• deriving from each ray emerging from the body a discrete output signal representing the sum of the transmission or absorption of the elements of the body intersected by the ray to derive sets of discrete output signals corresponding to the sets of rays indicative of the transmission or absorption of elements of said matrix;
• and
• reconstructing from said discrete output signals a 3-D representation of the transmission or absorption of the elements of the matrix of the slice of the body.

In a method of penetrating ray tomography the steps of;

• directing a divergent fan-shaped beam of penetrating radiation through a body to be analyzed from a source on one side of the body to a detector on the other side of the body, the divergent fan-shaped beam of penetrating radiation having a generally continuous uniform intensity across the fan-shaped subtended angle for a given radius from the apex of the fan-shaped beam;
• effecting relative angular displacement between the divergent beam of penetrating radiation and the body;
• collimating the penetrating radiation emerging from the body while maintaining the generally continuous body-attenuated intensity thereof;
• detecting the penetrating radiation that has passed through the body at a number of angularly spaced positions within the angle subtended by the divergent fan-shaped beam for each angular position of the divergent fan-shaped beam relative to the body to derive sets of detected radiation data representative of a plurality of angularly spaced shadowgrams of absorption or transmission of the penetrating radiation by the body, each of said shadowgrams representing the transmission of the penetrating radiation through the body along an array of divergent paths subtended by the divergent fan-shaped beam, and different ones of said sets of angularly spaced sets of shadowgram data corresponding to different sets of intersecting rays of penetrating radiation;
• and
• resonstructing the sets of shadowgraphic data into a tomograph of the body under analysis.

In a method of examining at least a part of the interior of a body using penetrating radiation the steps of:

• transmitting a divergent fan-shaped beam of radiation from an external source of radiation through the body in a plurality of divergent paths to establish an initial set of divergent ray paths through a generally planar slice of the body, the divergent fan-shaped beam of radiation having a generally continuous uniform intensity across the fan-shaped subtended angle for a given radius from the apex of the fan-shaped beam;
• transmitting divergent fan-shaped radiation from said external source through said body in further sets of divergent paths disposed in said planar slice at different angles from each other and from said initial angle, the sets of divergent rays being such that every element of the two-dimensional matrix of elements of the body in said planar slice is intersected by a group of said rays, the group of rays being different for the different elements of the matrix;
• collimating the penetrating radiation emerging from the body while maintaining the generally continuous uniform intensity thereof;
• deriving from each ray emerging from the body a discrete output signal representing the sum of the transmission or absorption of the elements of the body intersected by the ray to derive sets of discrete output signals corresponding to the sets of rays indicative of the transmission or absorption of elements of said matrix;
• and
• reconstructing from said discrete output signals a representation of the transmission or absorption of the elements of the matrix of the slice of the body.

In an apparatus for obtaining a 3-D tomograph of a body to be examined:

• means for directing a divergent beam of penetrating radiation through the body to be examined, said means including means for directing a divergent fan-shaped beam of penetrating radiation onto the body, being of generally continuous uniform intensity across the fan-shaped subtended angle for a given radius from the apex of the fan-shaped beam;
• means for detecting the divergent penetrating radiation that is passed through the body at a number of angularly spaced positions within the angle subtended by the divergent beam as a function of the relative angular position of the divergent beam relative to the body to derive sets of detected radiation data representative of sets of angularly spaced divergent ray shadowgrams of absorption or transmission of the divergent penetrating radiation by the body with different ones of said angularly spaced sets of the divergent rays shadowgram data corresponding to different sets of intersecting rays of divergent penetrating radiation;
• and
• means, disposed between the body and said radiation detecting means, for collimating the penetrating radiation emerging from the body while maintaining the generally continuous body-attenuated intensity thereof as incident upon the radiation detecting means.

In an apparatus for obtaining a 3-D tomograph of a body to be examined:

• means for directing a divergent beam of penetrating radiation onto and through the body to be examined;
• means for detecting the divergent penetrating radiation that is passed through the body at a number of angularly spaced positions within the angle subtended by the divergent beam as a function of the relative angular position of the divergent beam relative to the body to derive sets of detected radiation data representative of sets of angularly spaced divergent ray shadowgrams of absorption or transmission of the divergent penetrating radiation by the body with different ones of said angularly spaced sets of the divergent ray shadowgram data corresponding to different sets of intersecting rays of divergent penetrating radiation, said radiation detecting means being disposed in the divergent beam path of the penetrating radiation for detecting the divergent radiation after passage through the body, said detecting means including means responsive to the received penetrating radiation for deriving electrical signals representative of the intensity of the radiation as a function of the angular position within the divergent beam of penetrating radiation and including an array of spaced anode and cathode electrode means, said array of electrode means extending laterally of and within the divergent path of penetrating radiation, means for containing an ionizable gaseous atmosphere in the space between said anode and cathode electrode means, and means for applying an operating electrical potential between the said anode and cathode electrode means for generating an electrical output signal in response to an ionizing event occasioned by absorption of an quantum of penetrating radiation by the ionizable gas in the space between said anode and cathode electrode means.